WO2013136443A1

WO2013136443A1 - Cooling device for electronic device and electronic device

Info

Publication number: WO2013136443A1
Application number: PCT/JP2012/056420
Authority: WO
Inventors: 鈴木孝則
Original assignee: 富士通株式会社
Priority date: 2012-03-13
Filing date: 2012-03-13
Publication date: 2013-09-19

Abstract

This cooling device for an electronic device is provided with: a fan provided within the electronic device provided with an electronic component; a heat exchanging section that exchanges heat between a coolant and a gas intaken by the fan, obtaining a cooling wind; a temperature information acquisition unit that acquires temperature information for apprehending the state of cooling of the electronic component; a coolant flow state control unit that alters the flow state of the coolant; and a control unit that controls the rotational speed of the fan and the coolant flow state control unit on the basis of temperature information acquired by the temperature information acquisition unit. By means of introducing the cooling wind obtained by exchanging heat with the coolant, it is possible to obtain a suitable cooling effect while causing the rotational speed of the fan to be a low-speed driving state.

Description

Electronic device cooling device and electronic device

The present invention relates to an electronic device cooling device and an electronic device.

Electronic devices such as large computers equipped with semiconductors and server devices generate heat as they operate. For this reason, the electronic device includes a cooling fan. In recent years, for example, server devices have been installed at high density in a server room, and power consumption of electronic components such as CPU (Central Processing Unit) and memory has increased, resulting in an increase in the amount of heat generated. As a result, in the server room, exhaust air from another server device is sucked in, so that the intake air temperature taken into the server device rises and cooling efficiency decreases. In order to cope with the decrease in cooling efficiency due to the rise in intake air temperature, it is necessary to secure a larger amount of cooling air, and it is necessary to increase the number of cooling fans and to operate the fans at high speed. Additional fans and high-speed fan operation can contribute to noise problems.

For this situation, various cooling devices and cooling methods have been proposed. For example, a cooling method for a cabinet-accommodating information processing apparatus (see Patent Document 1) is known. Patent Document 1 discloses a cooling method in which a cooling device is installed in a cabinet that houses an information processing device, and air cooled by the cooling device is supplied to the information processing device through hollow columns that form the cabinet. Patent Document 1 discloses a cooler as a cooling device.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-212673

The cooling method disclosed in Patent Document 1 uses a cooler. The heat generated by the cooler itself is also exhausted from the upper part of the rack cabinet, which may reduce the cooling efficiency of the information processing apparatus. A decrease in cooling efficiency leads to high-speed operation of the cooling fan.

Therefore, in one aspect, an object of the present invention is to operate a fan at a low speed.

In order to solve such a problem, a cooling device for an electronic device disclosed in this specification includes a fan provided in an electronic device including an electronic component, and heat between a gas sucked by the fan and a refrigerant. A heat exchanging unit that exchanges and obtains cooling air, a temperature information obtaining unit that obtains temperature information for grasping a cooling state of the electronic component, a refrigerant flow state control unit that changes the flow state of the refrigerant, And a control unit that controls the rotation speed of the fan and the refrigerant flow state control unit based on the temperature information acquired by the temperature information acquisition unit.

The heat exchanger exchanges heat between the refrigerant and the cooling air. The refrigerant can take away the heat taken from the cooling air to the outside. Further, since the heat exchange unit itself does not exhaust, the air introduced into the electronic device is not warmed. Moreover, since the heat exchange part directly cools the gas introduced into the electronic device, the electronic device can be efficiently cooled. Furthermore, it is possible to control the temperature for each electronic device. As a result, it becomes easy to maintain the low-speed operation state of the fan.

According to the cooling device for an electronic device in one embodiment, the fan can be operated at a low speed as much as possible.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the cooling device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is an example of a functional block diagram of a control unit included in the cooling device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an electronic device including the cooling device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of control of the cooling device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a time chart illustrating an example of the operation of the cooling device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an electronic device including the cooling device according to the second embodiment.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, in the drawings, the dimensions, ratios, and the like of each part may not be shown so as to completely match the actual ones. In some cases, details are omitted in some drawings.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of the cooling device 1 of the first embodiment. An electronic device cooling device (hereinafter simply referred to as a cooling device) 1 cools a server device 50 including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 57 and other electronic components on a motherboard (MB) 52. The server device 50 is an example of an electronic device. The server device 50 includes a housing 51. The electronic device may be an information processing device such as a computer. The cooling device 1 includes a first cooling fan 2 and a second cooling fan 3 that are fans for sucking gas into the server device 50, specifically, a housing 51 included in the server device 50. The first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 draw in gas from the front side of the server device 50. The first cooling fan 2 sucks gas from the outside of the casing 51, and the second cooling fan 3 pushes the gas sucked by the first cooling fan 2 toward the rear of the casing 51. The first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 can switch the rotation speed between high-speed operation (100% output) and low-speed operation (50% output), respectively. A heat exchanger 4 is disposed between the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3. The heat exchanger 4 corresponds to a heat exchange unit. The heat exchanger 4 exchanges heat between the gas and the refrigerant to obtain cooling air. The heat exchanger 4 is a fine tube type, and the refrigerant flows through the tubes, and the gas flowing between the tubes is cooled to become cooling air. As long as heat can be exchanged between the gas and the refrigerant, any type of heat exchanger may be used. In the first embodiment, cooling water is used as the refrigerant, but any conventionally known refrigerant can be used. That is, the refrigerant may be a liquid or a gas. Exclusive cooling water may be sufficient and cooling oil may be sufficient.

The heat exchanger 4 and the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 are disposed to face each other. Thereby, the gas introduced into the housing 51 by the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 is directly cooled by the heat exchanger and becomes cooling air.

The heat exchanger 4 is connected to an introduction pipe 5 into which the cooled refrigerant is introduced, and to an outlet pipe 6 for discharging the warmed refrigerant after heat exchange. A pump 7 is connected to the introduction pipe 5. By operating the pump 7, the refrigerant that performs heat exchange with the gas is supplied to the heat exchanger 4. When the server device 50 is installed in the server room, the introduction pipe 5 and the lead-out pipe 6 are preferably extended outside the server room. That is, piping is performed so as to remove heat from the server room. The introduction pipe 5 introduces, for example, a refrigerant cooled to 10 ° C. or less into the heat exchanger 4. The introduction pipe 5 and the lead-out pipe 6 may be of a circulation type, but in this case, the refrigerant led out from the lead-out pipe 6 is cooled again and then returned to the introduction pipe 5.

The cooling device 1 includes a control valve 8 as a refrigerant flow control unit that changes the flow state of the refrigerant. The control valve 8 is an on-off valve and is provided on the introduction pipe 5. The control valve 8 of the first embodiment can be switched between fully open and fully closed, but a valve that can subdivide the valve opening amount may be used. The cooling device 1 includes a first temperature sensor 9 and a second temperature sensor 10 as a temperature information acquisition unit that acquires temperature information for grasping a cooling state of an electronic component included in the server device 50. It is assumed that the electronic component that is the object of grasping the cooling state has the largest amount of heat generation. In the first embodiment, the CPU 57 arranged on the mother board 52 is a temperature measurement target. The first temperature sensor 9 is cooled by the heat exchanger 4 and measures the temperature of the cooling air blown toward the CPU 57 by the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3. On the other hand, the second temperature sensor 10 measures the temperature of the CPU 57 itself.

The cooling device 1 includes a control unit 11. The control unit 11 is electrically connected to the first cooling fan 2, the second cooling fan 3 and the control valve 8. The control unit 11 is electrically connected to the first temperature sensor 9 and the second temperature sensor 10. The control unit 11 controls the rotation speeds of the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 based on the temperature information acquired by the first temperature sensor 9 and the second temperature sensor 10. Further, the control unit 11 issues a command to the control valve 8 based on the temperature information acquired by the first temperature sensor 9 and the second temperature sensor 10 to control the flow state of the refrigerant. FIG. 2 shows an example of a functional block diagram of the control unit 11. The control unit 11 includes a calculation unit 11a, a cooling fan control unit 11b, a temperature acquisition unit 11c, and a refrigerant flow control unit 11d. The control unit 11 stores a temperature control table 11e. The calculating part 11a compares the temperature information acquired from the 1st temperature sensor 9 and the 2nd temperature sensor 10 with the temperature control table 11e through the temperature acquisition part 11c. And the control part 11 controls the rotational speed of the 1st cooling fan 2 and the 2nd cooling fan 3 through the cooling fan control part 11b based on the comparison result in the calculating part 11a. Moreover, the control part 11 controls opening and closing of the control valve 8 through the refrigerant | coolant distribution control part 11d based on the comparison result in the calculating part 11a, and controls the distribution | circulation state of a refrigerant | coolant.

Next, a state in which the cooling device 1 is actually incorporated in the server device 50 will be described with reference to FIG. The server device 50 includes a mother board 52, a power supply unit (PSU) 53, and a back board 54 inside. The PSU 53 and the back board 54 are connected by a connector 55. The back board 54 and the mother board 52 are connected by a connector 56. On the mother board 52, a CPU 57 and a service processor (SP) 58 are mounted. The control unit 11 is mounted on the service processor 58. A first cooling fan 2, a heat exchanger 4, and a second cooling fan 3 are installed in order from the front side on the front side of the casing 51 of the server device 50. As described above, the introduction pipe 5 and the outlet pipe 6 are connected to the heat exchanger 4. The introduction pipe 5 and the lead-out pipe 6 pass through the housing 6 and are drawn out to the outside. The first temperature sensor 9 is disposed on the backboard 54. Since the backboard 54 is located on the rear side of the second cooling fan 3, the temperature of the introduced cooling air can be measured by arranging the first temperature sensor 9 on the backboard 54. The second temperature sensor 10 is disposed on the CPU 57 that generates the largest amount of heat among the electronic components.

Next, an example of control of the cooling device 1 will be described. The cooling device 1 is performed by comparing the temperature control table 11e stored in the controller 11 in advance with the acquired temperature information. Here, the contents of the temperature control table 11e are shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Here, the intake air temperature Ti is a temperature acquired by the first temperature sensor 9. The condition Tn is a condition (threshold value) for performing the low temperature determination. The CPU temperature Tj is a temperature acquired by the second temperature sensor 10. When Ti ≦ 20 ° C. or Tj ≦ 45 ° C., the refrigerant flow is stopped to prevent overcooling. Server device 50, which is an electronic device, has appropriate temperature conditions for operation. That is, the server device 50 is affected by its operation whether the temperature is too high or too low. Therefore, Ti = 20 ° C. or Tj = 45 ° C. is set as a threshold for performing the low temperature determination in order to determine the cooling state of the CPU 57 that is an electronic component provided in the server device 50.

The condition Th1 is a condition (threshold value) for circulating the refrigerant and actively reducing the temperature of the cooling air. The condition Th2 is a condition (threshold value) for switching the rotation speeds of the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 between the low speed operation and the high speed operation. Here, the threshold value of Ti = 25 ° C. is an example of a value calculated by reflecting the cooling capacity of the cooling device 1. Specifically, the threshold value of Ti = 25 ° C. is defined as a temperature at which the CPU 57 can be cooled to an appropriate temperature when the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 are operated at a low speed. . Further, the threshold value Tj = 65 ° C. is defined as a temperature with a margin for the operation limit value in consideration of the operation limit value (eg, 70 ° C.) guaranteed by the CPU 57.

The control unit 11 performs control based on the flowchart shown in FIG. The control based on the flowchart shown in FIG. 4 is repeatedly performed at regular intervals. For example, by setting the monitoring cycle by the timer to 1 minute, the control is repeated every minute. The example of the time chart shown in FIG. 5 shows the first to third rounds of repeated control. Further, it is assumed that the control valve 8 is closed and the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 are both operated at a low speed when the control is started. Further, it is assumed that the temperature state of the server device 50 gradually increases.

First, the first round will be explained. The control part 11 acquires temperature information by step S1. And the calculating part 11a of the control part 11 judges whether Tn conditions are satisfied in step S2. When the control unit 11 determines Yes in step S2, the control unit 11 proceeds to step S3. In step S3, the controller 11 closes the control valve 8 through the refrigerant flow controller 11d. Thereby, the circulation of the refrigerant is stopped. As a result, excessive cooling of the cooling air is avoided, and thus excessive cooling of the CPU 57 is also avoided. In step S4, which is performed subsequent to step S3, the fans, that is, the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 are put into a low-speed operation state. When the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 are in a low-speed operation state, the driving sound can be reduced. In the first round, when the determination in step S2 is Yes, steps S5 to S8 are skipped.

Next, the second round will be explained. The control unit 11 performs the determination in step S2 based on the temperature information acquired in step S1 of the second round. As a result, when it is determined No in step S2, the process proceeds to step S5. And the calculating part 11a of the control part 11 judges whether Th1 conditions are satisfied in step S5. When the control unit 11 determines Yes in step S5, the control unit 11 proceeds to step S6. In step S6, the control unit 11 opens the control valve 8 through the refrigerant flow control unit 11d. Thereby, circulation of the refrigerant is started. As a result, a low-temperature refrigerant is introduced into the heat exchanger 4 and heat exchange with the cooling air is performed. Thereby, the gas is cooled and supplied as cooling air, and the CPU 57 is cooled to an appropriate temperature. In addition, the control part 11 performs the process of step S3 and step 4, when it is judged No at step S5. That is, the control valve 8 is closed, and the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 are maintained in a low-speed operation state. In step S7 performed subsequent to step S6, the calculation unit 11a of the control unit 11 determines whether or not the Th2 condition is satisfied. When the control unit 11 determines No in step S7, the control unit 11 proceeds to step S4. That is, the low-speed operation state of the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 is maintained. As described above, the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 are set to the low-speed operation state, so that the driving sound of the fans can be reduced. If heat exchange with the refrigerant is not performed, it is required to cool the CPU 57 by operating the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 at high speed. However, in the cooling device 1 of the first embodiment, since the temperature of the cooling air can be lowered, the CPU 57 is appropriately cooled while maintaining the rotation speeds of the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 at a low speed. be able to.

Next, the third round will be explained. The control unit 11 performs the determination in step S2 based on the temperature information acquired in step S1 of the third round. As a result, if No is determined in Step S2, Yes is determined in Step S5, and if Yes is determined in Step S7, the process proceeds to Step S8. In step S8, the control unit 11 switches the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 to the high speed operation state. Thereby, it cools by heat exchange with a refrigerant | coolant, and the obtained cooling wind is sent toward CPU57 by high speed rotation. As a result, the CPU 57 can be appropriately cooled.

The control unit 11 also performs control based on the flowchart after the third round. Thereby, if it will be in the state which can be judged as No in step S7, the 1st cooling fan 2 and the 2nd cooling fan 3 can be switched to a low-speed operation state, and a noise can be reduced. That is, normally, as the rotational speed of the fan increases, the drive sound increases. Therefore, by suppressing the rotational speed of the fan, it is possible to suppress the drive sound that becomes noise.

As described above, according to the cooling device 1 of the first embodiment, the cooling fan can be operated at a low speed in many time zones. If it is determined No in step S2 or step S5, the control valve 8 is closed, heat exchange between the refrigerant and the gas is stopped, and excessive cooling is avoided.

Since the cooling device 1 according to the first embodiment can take away heat to the outside by the refrigerant, that is, can be taken out of the server room, the temperature rise of the intake air itself can be suppressed. In addition, by disposing the heat exchanger so as to face the fan, it is difficult to be affected by the ambient temperature, and appropriate cooling is possible. In addition, the fan itself is normally provided in an electronic device such as a server device, and an increase in additional parts can be suppressed as compared with a conventional electronic device.

The heat exchanger 4 is different from a so-called cooler that requires drive control. That is, drive control of the heat exchanger 4 itself is unnecessary. If drive control of the heat exchanger 4 itself is required, it can be considered that the control becomes complicated. If the heat exchanger 4 is used, it will be freed from such annoyance. In addition, when a so-called cooler is used, a cool air supply fan for supplying the cooling air generated by the cooler to the server device 50 must be provided separately, but this is not necessary in the cooling device 1 of the present embodiment.

Next, Example 2 will be described with reference to FIG. In the first embodiment, the cooling device 1 is incorporated in advance when the server device 50 is assembled. On the other hand, the cooling device 20 according to the second embodiment is incorporated in the server device 100 later. Hereinafter, the server device 100 in which the cooling device 20 is incorporated will be described. In addition, about the component which is common in the component in Example 1, the same reference number is attached | subjected in drawing and the detailed description is abbreviate | omitted.

The heat exchanger 4 in the cooling device 1 of Example 1 was disposed between the first cooling fan 2 and the second cooling fan 3 in the housing 51. On the other hand, the heat exchanger 24 included in the cooling device 20 of the second embodiment is installed on the open / close door 111 of the rack 110 in which the server device 100 is installed. When the cooling device 20 is incorporated into the server device 100 later, it is difficult to equip the heat exchanger 24 in the housing 101 of the server device 100. Therefore, the heat exchanger 24 is installed in the open / close door 111 attached to the rack 110 via the hinge 111a. Thereby, the heat exchanger 24 can be disposed opposite to the first cooling fan 102 and the second cooling fan 103. The heat exchanger 24 is connected to the inlet pipe 5 and the outlet pipe 6 as in the case of the first embodiment, and is also equipped with a control valve 8. Then, by installing the first temperature sensor 9 and the second temperature sensor 10 and further the control unit 11 in the housing 101, a configuration equivalent to that of the first embodiment can be obtained. As described above, the cooling device 20 according to the second embodiment can be attached to a server device that is already in operation, and the same effects as those of the first embodiment can be obtained. Further, when the cooling device 20 is added, since the fan itself uses the one already provided in the server device 100, the number of parts can be suppressed, and the installation work becomes easy.

The above-described embodiments are merely examples for carrying out the present invention, and the present invention is not limited thereto. Various modifications of these embodiments are within the scope of the present invention. It is apparent from the above description that various other embodiments are possible within the scope.

DESCRIPTION OF

SYMBOLS

1,20 Cooling device 2,102 1st cooling fan 3,103 2nd cooling fan 4,24 Heat exchanger 5 Introducing pipe 6 Outlet pipe 7 Pump 8 Control valve 9 1st temperature sensor 10 2nd temperature sensor 11

Control part

50 , 100

Server device

51, 101 Case

Claims

A fan provided in an electronic device including electronic components;
Heat exchange between the gas sucked by the fan and the refrigerant to obtain cooling air; and
A temperature information acquisition unit for acquiring temperature information for grasping the cooling state of the electronic component;
A refrigerant flow state control unit for changing the flow state of the refrigerant;
Based on the temperature information acquired by the temperature information acquisition unit, a control unit for controlling the rotation speed of the fan and the refrigerant flow state control unit,
A cooling device for an electronic device.
The cooling device for an electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the fan and the heat exchange unit are disposed to face each other.
The said control part stops the distribution | circulation of the said refrigerant | coolant by the said refrigerant | coolant distribution control part, when it is judged that the cooling state of the said electronic component is a state lower than the threshold value which performs low temperature determination. Electronic device cooling system.
The cooling device for an electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the heat exchange unit is installed on an opening / closing door of a rack in which the electronic device is installed.
A fan that sucks gas into a housing equipped with electronic components;
Heat exchange between the gas sucked by the fan and the refrigerant to obtain cooling air; and
A temperature information acquisition unit for acquiring temperature information for grasping a cooling state of the electronic component;
A refrigerant flow control unit for changing the flow state of the refrigerant;
Based on the information acquired by the temperature information acquisition unit, a rotation speed of the fan, a control unit for controlling the refrigerant flow control unit,
An electronic device with